Domain alias resolution
Why it matters
In certain regions, Google operated googlemail.com as an alias for gmail.com — alice@googlemail.com and alice@gmail.com are the same mailbox. Without alias resolution, the same person can appear as two separate contacts, receiving duplicate sends and having their unsubscribe applied only to the alias variant. While googlemail.com is the most common example, additional alias relationships exist for other providers in specific markets. Duplicate contacts from unresolved aliases inflate list metrics, add send cost, and introduce suppression gaps when the unsubscribe is captured under the aliased domain.
Severity rationale
Low because domain alias collisions are infrequent and affect a narrow set of known providers, creating manageable duplication rather than systematic data corruption.
Remediation
Apply a domain alias map during normalization, resolving aliased domains to their canonical form before deduplication lookup:
const DOMAIN_ALIASES: Record<string, string> = {
'googlemail.com': 'gmail.com',
'googlemail.co.uk': 'gmail.com',
}
function normalizeEmail(email: string): string {
const [local, domain] = email.toLowerCase().trim().split('@')
if (!local || !domain) return email.toLowerCase().trim()
const canonicalLocal = local.split('+')[0]
const canonicalDomain = DOMAIN_ALIASES[domain] ?? domain
return `${canonicalLocal}@${canonicalDomain}`
}
Combine this with plus-tag stripping (see ab-000860) in a single normalizeEmail function so all normalization logic runs in one pass. Add new alias entries as you discover them via duplicate detection reports.
DetectionPro
The detection method for this pattern is part of AuditBuffet Pro.
The full method (what to look for, pass and fail conditions, and how results get reported) ships inside the Data Quality & List Hygiene Audit. The pattern definition, severity rationale, and remediation remain openly licensed under CC-BY-4.0.
External references
- iso-25010:2011 · functional-correctness — Functional Correctness (functional suitability)
Taxons
History
- 2026-04-18·v1.0.0·Initial import from data-quality-list-hygiene·automated